-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Environmentalists in Vietnam were ebullient this week after remote cameras in a forest reserve snapped pictures of a live saola , one of the rarest large mammals on Earth .

At most a few hundred -- and as few as a couple dozen -- of the animals are thought to exist . Because of that rarity and its elusiveness , the saola is dubbed the `` Asian unicorn . '' That moniker comes despite the fact it has two closely spaced parallel horns .

`` These are the most important wild animal photographs taken in Asia , and perhaps the world , in at least the past decade , '' said William Robichaud , coordinator of the Saola Working Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature 's Species Survival Commission , in a World Wildlife Fund press release .

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`` This is an historic moment in Vietnam 's efforts to protect our extraordinary biodiversity , '' Dang Dinh Nguyen , deputy head of the country 's Quang Nam Forest Protection Department , said in the release .

The picture of the animal was taken in September in a reserve in the Central Annamite Mountains and announced by the WWF on Tuesday .

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Van Ngoc Thinh , WWF-Vietnam 's country director , called the picture `` a breath-taking discovery . ''

`` When our team first looked at the photos we could n't believe our eyes . Saola are the holy grail for Southeast Asian conservationists , '' Van said in a press release .

The saola , which is a relative of cattle but looks like an antelope , was first discovered in 1992 in forests along the Vietnam-Laos border . A WWF survey team found a skull of the animal in a hunter 's home . In Vietnam , a saola was last seen in the wild in 1998 . In Laos , a remote camera snapped a picture of one in the wild in 1999 . And in 2010 , Laotian villagers captured a saola that died before word got to researchers .

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There are no saola in captivity .

Environmentalists said Wednesday the pictures show that efforts to save the saola are working .

`` Saola are caught in wire snares set by hunters to catch other animals , such as deer and civets , which are largely destined for the lucrative illegal wildlife trade , '' Van said in the WWF release . `` Since 2011 , forest guard patrols ... have removed more than 30,000 snares from this critical saola habitat and destroyed more than 600 illegal hunters ' camps . ''

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Saola caught on forest camera in Vietnam

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At most , only a few hundred saola thought to exist

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Species was first discovered in 1992